Session #40 Wrapup

Thank to everyone who took part in this month’s session. We had a lot of great response. It was great to see such a breadth of posts, and I was happy to see some people contribute who haven’t in a while. Here for your reading pleasure:

Mario at Brewed For Thought defines the “California Session Beer”, made with umph, but not too much.

The Beer Nut takes us on a small tour of two session beers: Hopback Entire Stout and Breconshire Night Beacon.

John/Devoid of Beertaster.ca talks about his favorite lawnmower beers.

Steph Weber, one of the many talented bloggers of the Hop Press posits that session beer is a personal definition, and tells us hers: easy to enjoy while chatting with friends.

Chris at Notch Session Ales gives us a look at his recent article for Beer Advocate magazine in which he says he wants to take the definition for session beer back from the 6% crowd.

Derrick at Bay Area Beer Runner likens session beer “great background music during an evening out with friends.”

Jay at A Beer in Hand (is worth two in the fridge) tells us about returning to his session stout after an affair with IPAs.

Lew Bryson goes to town at The Session Beer Project, puts some old demons to bed, and reiterates his definition a session beer in the face of the bigger burrito. You’ll never think of a ball-washer at the golf course the same way again.

Steve at All Good Beer hopes that craft breweries will continue to expand the session beer market, even though they’re not necessarily headline-grabbing beers.

Brian Yaeger, author of Red, White, and Brew says that if he had a lawn, he’d mow it with Anchor Steam. Well, no. He’d mow it with a riding lawnmower, but he’d drink Anchor Steam. He also waxes eloquent about the low ABV brews at this local hangouts.

Sean at Beer Search Party suggests that the reason that the Session Beer Train has not yet pulled into the station is because of America’s hypocritical self-view of over-consumption, or perhaps that many craft beer drinkers see session beers as “too macro.”

Someone at Beer Made Clear (there so many of you guys), who apparently has family neighboring mine in Northern Maine (yeah Fort Kent!) and tells a story of discovering Shipyard Fuggles IPA in during a session which he describes as “all-encompassing conversations which start with beers but end with opinions; on politics, culture or the nature of good and evil.”

Jon at The Brew Site gets back to the review and gives us a one of Gone Fishin Mild Ale, from Beer Valley Brewing.

Peter at A Better Beer Blog notes that session drinking is “essentially the guts of the craft beer movement” and hopes that craft brewers will start to “sessionize” everything instead of “imperialize” everything in the future.

Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer tells that old joke about the Englishman, the Belgian, and the Czech, notes that session beers are different for everyone and wonders whether the appellation “session” needs definition at all.

Seabass, from Natty Greene’s, posts from inside aussenhaus where he compares craft beer to coffee and wine, and notes that session beers are the greatest delight and the hardest to make, and defines session beer as “deliciously non-intrusive, self-explanatory, [and] a good companion in life.”

Alan at A Good Beer Blog notes that what is probably stopping craft beer from growing is the industry’s inability to take advantage of the session market.

So beautiful, thank you Sharon! Ebru and I are oleewhevmrd with gratitude. The pictures turned out perfectly. We’re not just saying that cause they are our kids, but because you had the patience and skills to take the right shot.You’re awesome!Always,Rolando and Ebru

Erik, Thanks for hosting. Great insight, if not varied and sometimes conflicting thoughts, on Session Beer. Just happy to see Session Beer back in the craft beer conversation — Chris (http://www.notchsession.com)

Wow… I hadn’t been reading your session this month, so seeing the recap is a bit overwhelming. There is a LOT of good reading in here, thanks for putting this together! Keep hosting it and please keep the good stuff coming.

This is an interesting topic in particular and I hope given some time you encourage everyone to take it up again, preferably with the accumulated wisdom of several months’ additional tastings of session beers.

This is the right site for everyone who really wants to understand this topic.
You realize a whole lot its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually will need to…HaHa).
You certainly put a new spin on a topic that has been written about for many years.
Great stuff, just excellent!

Hi prep H,When I went to shcool the thing I liked best was going on shcool camp, in grade six we went all the way to Canberra for a week, I still remember that time. We only had one hundred and thirty kids at my shcool, it was called Kerang central primary shcool, it was in a country town in northern Victoria. I enjoyed primary shcool lots and had lots of wonderful friends.